Business computing

1. Business computing Midterm correction 30th November 2004

2. Site address • http://www.lapasserelle.com/escem/notre_dame.html • New students : study the past lessons on the Net, and hand in next week last year’s exam (print it, and do it by yourself at home) • Today we correct last week exam. We do a right click on it on the Net and save it onto one’s desktop

3. Give the names of several Operating systems ? • Win XP • Win 98 • Linux • Mac OS 10

4. Within the Microsoft office suite of softwares what is the "Shift + F1" key for ? • Answer : it is designed to get help • Keying « Shift + F1 » transforms the pointer into a question mark • With the « ? Pointer » we click on the icon on which we want to have information. • A small text of explanation is displayed

5. (Word) What is the name of this toolbar ? We were supposed to look at various toolbars and select the one that corresponds to this picture It is the toolbar to prepare a form

6. Insert a sound • Within powerpoint we can insert sounds • Either with a microphone • Or coming from a folder of sound • It can be used to create interactive lessons

7. The logic of a powerpoint page • A powerpoint page is nothing more than a blank page onto which we position objects • Images, textzones, sounds, movies…

8. (Word) What is the name of this icon ? What is it for (explain) ? It is the tool to transform a one-column page into a several-column page

9. Ctrl Z Ctrl A Ctrl V Ctrl X Ctrl Z cancels the last action Ctrl A selects all the objects within a work zone Ctrl V pastes something that is in the clipboard Ctrl X copies and at the same time cuts something from somewhere (Word) What are these keyboard equivalent for :

10. (Word) How do you indent the first line of a paragraph ? Explain and draw a picture of the “handle” you use

11. (Word) Cite a few tabs of the “menubar > tools > options” menu item • View • General • Edition • Record • ….

12. (Word) How do we insert a table in a word document ?

13. General philosophy • It is impossible to be lost with an Office software • We can always know what the icons are designed for • We can always obtain an explanation on how to do simple operations : ask in plain english the assistant

14. (Google) Who was Eleanor (or Aliénor) of Aquitaine’s first husband ? When did they marry ? • This is a question where we need to search on the Web with the help of a search engine (for instance Google) • Alienor married Louis VII in 1137

15. What is the address, the content, and the name of the selected cell in this Excel document? The cell address is C6 Its content is =A1*$B3 Its name is « Sales » The default name of a cell is its address

16. If we copy the selected cell to the right, what result shall we get ? (Explain the result.) • Answer : the arguments of the cell content will be shifted if there is no dollar sign in front of the letter of their address • A1 will become B1 • Whereas $B3 will stay $B3 • Therefore we shall get =B1*$B3 • Answer : 100

17. If we copy the selected cell downward, what result shall we get ? (Explain the result.) • Answer : the arguments of the cell content will be shifted if there is no dollar sign in front of the number in their address • A1 will become A2 • $B3 will become $B4 • Therefore we shall get =A2*$B4 • Answer : 60

18. How do we get, within an Excel sheet, this view, where some cells are highlighted with different colors ? • Answer : select the cell we want to see displayed with its formula, and press key F2

19. How should we modify the formula in B5 (above), if we want to copy it to the right and get the squares of 4 and of 5 in cells C5 and D5 ? • Put a $ sign is front of the B of B1 • New formula into B5 : « =B3*$B1 » • When we copy this formula to the right we get :  =C3*$B1 and =D3*$B1

20. How to generate a random number between 0 and 1 ? • (in English) use the formula : « =rand() » • (in French) use the formula : « =alea() »

21. Logical test • If we enter this formula we shall get « oranges are more expensive », because it is the argument to be displayed when the logical formula yields « false ».

22. Explain what is a custom list. When are they useful ? How to create one ? • When we need to frequently enter the same series of names, we can prepare a custom list of these names, and then enter them very quickly • They are useful to quicken repetitive work • We create them in the menu/option/cust. list tool

23. What is this icon for ? When is it useful ? • Ans. To merge several cells into one • This is useful to position the title of a table

24. Concepts in computing • In computing, • DATA STORING, • COMPUTATION, and • DISPLAY • are three fundamentally different concepts • Understanding the difference helps create efficient databases and reports • Building « hard » data into a display is a mistake • Web pages are essentially DISPLAY pages of information. It is better to store the information elsewhere than in the page code. • Dynamic link is also designed to implement this idea : not to build « hard » data into a report, insert them with a dynamic link from elsewhere.

25. Dynamic link • A dynamic link is an example of separating data and display